“We knew that they were going to be a part of [expansion],” manager and technical director Peter Vermes told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday. “We had a two-year setup, knowing this was pretty much going to be the case. We have a few other ideas in mind of what we're doing.”

“We've talked to a few other USL teams already,” he said. “We're going to talk to some other teams, too. The other thing is the possibility of owning our own franchise. We thought about that even before the Orlando deal.”

“I haven't talked to him, but regionally is where we'd like the team to be,” Vermes said. “I don't know if it would be here in town. I don't know if it would be regional – Tulsa, Omaha, St. Louis. It could be a lot of different places. Again, that doesn't mean we wouldn't be willing to do some affiliations again as well.”

In the meantime, Sporting still have to figure out what Tuesday's announcement means for the second year of the affiliation deal in 2014. Vermes said he would like to continue the deal, which saw five Sporting players loaned to the Lions during the past USL PRO season – including forward Dom Dwyer, who set a league record with 15 goals in 13 matches and scored four times in the USL PRO title game on a one-match return engagement.

“That's our objective here,” Vermes said. “We're actually going to have a conference call on Friday with them, to see what they want to do as well.”